Daughn Gibson, ‘Me Moan’

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The way Daughn Gibson sings the phrase “state trooper’s daughter” on his new album is utterly bewildering. He sort of swallows the words, twisting them around like Johnny Cash with marbles in his mouth. Meanwhile, the music surrounding him is swampy, thick with what sounds like warped pedal steel and a rhythm section straight out of 1990s neo-soul. The song is “The Pisgee Nest,” and it’s what makes “Me Moan” so hypnotic. On his debut for Sub Pop Records, Gibson comes off as a sound collage artist feverishly darting from one idea to the next. Starting with the turbo-charged opener, “The Sound of Law,” he mashes and smashes his influences into something hard to decipher but easy to get lost in. A passage that borrows from country music suddenly collides with a hip-hop backbeat or new wave guitars, while Gibson’s voice — a cross between those of Cash and Nick Cave — spins abstract tales of characters you wouldn’t want to meet in a back alley, which is where this album sounds like it was born. (Out Tuesday)